School security funding fight seen

Updated 11:34 pm, Saturday, February 2, 2013

AUSTIN — If voters approve special taxing districts to fund more school security in Texas, smaller, property-poor districts could wind up relying more on cheaper Web cams and less on police officers for the job.

According to the Equity Center, a group that represents underfunded school districts in Texas, the disparity in school funding — now the subject of a lawsuit in Austin — again could play out when it comes to capturing more funds for campus security by raising local sales or property taxes.

While three Houston-area lawmakers hammer out the details for such a funding option, the Equity Center took a look at how much school security a 1-cent-per-$100 property tax boost, hypothetically, could raise for a district.

Based on the Equity Center's analysis of 2013 property values, San Antonio ISD could net about $1.17 million, Northside ISD could raise $3.2 million and North East ISD could raise $2.7 million.

Smaller districts would get less, depending on the relative wealth of their tax base. Alamo Heights ISD could see $484,703, but Edgewood ISD only slightly more than $89,000.

“The wealthier will be able to afford better security,” said Ray Freeman, the center's executive deputy director.

As envisioned by state Sens. Tommy Williams, R-The Woodlands, and John Whitmire, D-Houston, along with Rep. Dan Huberty, R-Humble, the Texas School District Security Act would allow school districts to craft special taxing districts to raise money for security.

Districts in areas where the sales tax is at the maximum 8.25-percent rate — such as the city of San Antonio — could consider a property tax increase. The bill has not been filed and creation of the taxing districts would require approval by voters.

Edgewood ISD board president Joseph Guerra said the proposal “makes the lawmakers look good but isn't very effective for poorer school districts,” noting the 1-cent property tax example would pay for “maybe one full-time police officer and another who works one-third of the day.”

“The voters may support it now, but taxpayers can be fickle,” he said, and even if the proposal is well-intentioned and passes, it “creates a whole new set of problems that puts the need on us to keep finding the money down the road.”

Tracy Hoke-Ginsburg, chief financial officer for Fort Bend ISD, said if Texas lawmakers will not give districts more money to pay for better security, then a special taxing district has a lot of appeal.

“We've got 70,000 students and 75 campuses and ... a police force that is spread very thin,” she said.

She worries, however, that the same disparities that have haunted Texas school finance for decades will surface.

“They're going to get back into the 'Robin Hood' thing,” Hoke-Ginsburg said, using the steal-from-the-rich, give-to-the-poor nickname of the state's school finance system.

School districts across the state have been discussing how to make campuses more secure following the Dec. 14 shooting at a Connecticut elementary school that left 20 children and six educators dead.

“If they would just let us raise our tax rate and run it through school finance and let it be dedicated,” Hoke-Ginsburg said. “The children in the very poor areas of the state deserve the same access to security as our children in our wealthy areas of the state. They're exposed to the same situations.”

Even wealthier districts may have a tough time selling a tax boost.

“It may be a separate taxing district, but it's money that comes out of the same (voters') pocket,” said Clay Robison, spokesman for the Texas State Teachers Association.

Robison likes that lawmakers are looking at something other than arming teachers but said, “The state is still passing much of the cost to the local districts.”

Williams said it's too early to predict the effect of a measure still being drafted.

“The truth is, we haven't considered the (funding) effects at this time. We want to hear from people about it as we go through the process,” Williams said. “I think the most certain way to kill this idea is to create a new Robin Hood-type system.”

He also said the door is not closed on the idea of state funding for security.

“But there may be some way we can address these concerns through additional state funding,” Williams said. “I just don't know what the right answer is. I am not against helping those property poor school districts, but I'm not in favor of setting up some complicated new school funding system.”